Twenty Four Hours
by SparkleInTheSun
Summary: It's amazing how much can change in just twenty four hours, it's scary how much you can lose in such a short amount of time, it's weird how one minute she can be sitting next to you, joking and laughing and the next.. she's gone. Time is a funny thing.


**Disclaimer: See last chapter**

"**You can shed tears that she is gone, or you can smile because she has lived.**

**You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back, or you can open your eyes and see all that she's left.**

**Your heart can be empty because you can't see her, or you can be full of the love you shared. **

**You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday, or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.**

**You can remember her only that she is gone, or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.**

**You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back. **

**Or you can do what she'd want: **

**Smile, open your eyes, love and go on."**

**~ David Harkins**

It was a cold day on the 15th December, the snow was falling quickly and heavily, covering the ground with a beautiful, soft white blanket. The friends were sitting around a small fire in the studio, discussing new sketches, laughing a little when someone said something funny.

None of them saw the man looking at them through the large ground floor window, none of them noticed him write down her name on his list just below the previous victims. He had always done that, he always saw them and wrote down their name when he found it out, it was how he worked. And then he would go down that list, killing them one by one and he knew he would carry on doing the same until the day he was caught. And he knew they knew that as well.

It was later on when what remained of the cast members and best friends sat around that same fire, tears running down their pale faces as they looked into the bright, orange flames that they thought how weird it was to lose someone so suddenly. When someone dies it's as though the whole world stops for a moment as they watch the television, seeing images of the newest victim on their screens, and they think to themselves; 'That could have been me' or 'That could have been someone I know, it could have been my mother, it could have been my sister...'

It's worse when you know the victim, the memories hurt at first as you think about the life that could have been spared if only you had known, if only you protected her better. It's another life wasted, another pair of eyes you will never see again, another smile that won't see the next day, another laugh that will never be heard again and another child dying before her loving parents.

When you know that person it hits you that you can't hide from the grasps of death, you watch as it claims another person that you love and you watch as everyone who loved that person cries for the loss of such an amazing girl – a rising star, she could have done so well.

You look at the faces all over the news and you think that was someone's best friend, that was someone's daughter, that was someone's son or that was someone's mother. That person was a somebody and that person was loved.

For those who knew the victim they would never forget the man that had murdered so many, he was the man that most people would have mistaken for being nice, the man who people would smile at and even talk to in the streets. He was the type you could trust too easily until he was staring at you with a knife in his hands, holding your arms above your head as he grinned at you, no remorse in his eyes, just relief that finally he had managed to get you alone and he had managed to kill you without anyone catching him.

The group of teenagers all stared into the fire, no words needed to be exchanged as they mourned the loss of a valued cast member, a best friend. And they will sit there, blaming themselves, wondering what it is they could have changed, what they had missed that could have been seen earlier, what they could have done to save that very last victim.

They would look into the fire as the sound of their friends scream ran through their ears, they would curse themselves for not getting there sooner, for not being able to make sure she was okay a little bit sooner.

They would never forget the heart breaking scream that had erupted from one of them when they discovered the body, the snow had been falling and was covering the body in a soft blanket, almost protecting her from further harm as her blood coated the white ground quickly.

None of them would ever forget the blood, so much blood. They had scrubbed their hands clean when they walked back into the studios, still in a state of shock. The blood on their clothes had been ignored as they sat without saying anything to each other since leaving the crime scene, they just closed their eyes, remembering the moment they had all been sitting in that same place just twenty four hours ago, all of them now thinking the same thing,

_'It's amazing how much can change in just twenty four hours, how much you can lose in such a short amount of time.'_

**A/N: This is a one shot at the moment, but if you want me to take it any further than this then just review and also let me know which girl you think/want it to be. **


End file.
